Audio 2:58
Life sentence for UK man who killed his six children

Barbara MillerUpdated
Fri 5 Apr 2013, 8:20 AM AEDT

A British man whose six children died in a house fire he started as part of a twisted plot that went disastrously wrong has been sentenced to life in jail. The sentencing judge said his actions were outside the comprehension of any right-thinking person.

Transcript

TONY EASTLEY: A British man who set fire to his home, killing six of his children, has been sentenced to life in prison for manslaughter.

His wife and a friend who conspired with the couple have also been given lengthy jail terms.

The crime has sparked a debate in the UK about whether the sentenced man is a product of the welfare system he exploited.

Europe correspondent Barbara Miller reports.

BARBARA MILLER: An act so evil that even the families of those who carried it out have turned against them.

This is Mick Philpott's sister reacting to the sentencing.

DAWN BESTWICK: Victory today! They've gone down!

BARBARA MILLER: The judge said Mick Philpott was the "driving force" behind a "wicked and dangerous" plan to set fire to his house while six of the 17 children he'd fathered slept.

His wife Mairead and their neighbour Paul Mosley went along with it.

The idea was to save the children but frame a mistress who had walked out on him.

The fire took hold in seconds - the children, aged between five and 13, had no chance.

VOX POP 1: Six innocent kids getting murdered, he should have at least a life sentence for each single one of them.

VOX POP 2: Not enough obviously, not enough at all. I can't believe that they've only got that.

BARBARA MILLER: Mick Philpott put in a call to emergency services as they succumbed to smoke inhalation.

EMERGENCY CALL BY MICK PHILPOTT: I couldn't get in. I've lost it and I just can't get in.

BARBARA MILLER: Mick Philpott was a performer. He appeared on television boasting of the fact that he shared a home with his wife and mistress.

MICK PHILPOTT: I mean I sleep in here all the time and the girls take in turns in there with me. I have one one night and one another night.

BARBARA MILLER: It's now been revealed he previously stabbed a woman multiple times because she had left him. He was facing trial over a violent road-rage incident. He was extremely controlling and lived from state benefits and the earnings of the women in his life.

One tabloid said he was a vile product of the welfare system - an argument the UK chancellor of the exchequer George Osborne is buying into.

GEORGE OSBORNE: Philpott is responsible for these absolutely horrendous crimes but I think there is a question for government and for society about the welfare state and the taxpayers who pay for the welfare state subsidising lifestyles like that.

BARBARA MILLER: Ann Widdecombe the former Conservative MP whose reality television program featured Philpott disagrees.

ANN WIDDECOMBE: I've no doubt that he used his children as meal tickets. I mean at that stage when I met him he was producing two a year, one by each woman. But none of that, none of that explains the wickedness which governed his previous actions, which led to his attitude towards women, and which led to that extremely reckless act.

BARBARA MILLER: Mairead Philpott will serve at least half of her 17 year sentence. Mick Philpott will be locked up for a minimum of 15 years.

The disturbing details of the man and his crime will remain in the minds of the British public long after that.